Sub Commander: Tactics and Strategy for Wwii Submarine Simulations

Rating:
Summary: A good book for the aspiring sub commander!
Review: This book examines, explains and illustrates the attack tactics used by sub commanders during WW2. Included are explanations and illustrations of basic attack philosophy, 15 different attack tactics, and defensive strategies and maneuvers.

There are many of photographs and even more illustrations showing the different attack tactics and sub positioning. For me, these illustrations were worth the price of the book and they show visually what some authors only describe. The attack tactics are 2 pages each...one page has the diagram with each stage numbered. The opposite page describes what you should do during each number stage. It isn't as detailed as APPENDIX C of the Silent Hunter Manual, but it does contain more examples. To fully understand the tactics of setting up for a torpedo attack I would recommend a combination of this book, the SH manual and page 72 (sample attack data) of McCant's "War Patrols of the USS Flasher" plus an understanding of basic geometry and trigonomety. Finally, it has a section on escape tactics.

Examples from actual attacks from USS Parch, USS Tang and USS Skipjack are included showing how actual subs used these tactics.

Playing hints are provided for "Silent Service", "GATO", "Up Periscope!", and "Sub Battle Simulator". The book was published in 1987, so there is no info about Aces of the Deep or Silent Hunter.

The only error I noticed was on the diagram that described "Angle on the Bow Determination". The author got the AOB for the ships in the diagram switched.

This is a good book for those of us "visual" people...that is, who need to "see" things in order to understand. Most authors talk about "gyro settings", "angle on the bow", "normal approach course", but give no visual example. This book fills the gap and helps me envision what a particular author is describing. Even though the game section was dated, the tactics are still useful if you apply them to AOD or Silent Hunter...a good buy for the price.